Following the recent election in which Guilford Democrat Christine Cohen prevailed to win the District 12 State Senate seat, the Guilford Board of Education (BOE) has now begun the process to fill her spot on the board.

At the Nov. 12 BOE meeting, Chair Bill Bloss congratulated Cohen and opened the board agenda to begin discussions concerning a replacement.

“On behalf of all of the board, congratulations and we are going to miss you, but on the other hand I think we all are probably going to have your number in our cell phones and we will be looking forward to you getting the budget under control,” he said. “Since we have done alright in Guilford, we are looking for you to now solve the Hartford problem.”

Cohen defeated Republican Adam Greenberg on Nov. 6 and will succeed current State Senator Ted Kennedy Jr. (D-12) in early January when the legislature is sworn in. Cohen has indicated she will step down from the BOE before she is sworn in to the State Senate, but has yet to formally submit a resignation.

Once Cohen submits her resignation, the board has 60 days to fill the seat according to the town charter. The town charter also states that since Cohen was elected to the BOE as a member of a party, her replacement has to come from the same political party.

Bloss said there are two ways the board can go about filling Cohen’s seat.

“Back long ago we just deferred to the relevant town party committee for a recommendation and then adopted that recommendation,” he said. “More recently we have, as a board, invited applications from people and then met in executive session to review résumés from people and then interviewed. I think the last time we did it we interviewed about five or six people and then voted to appoint a person. My preference would be to do that, I think it’s a better process. It takes a little more time and we are going to be getting into the budget season, so time is going to get valuable, but nonetheless it’s an important thing to do and I think we ought to do it in as open as a way as we reasonably can.”

Board members agreed with Bloss’s preference that interested parties come directly to the BOE. Bloss said those who are interested should also be aware that Cohen’s term on the BOE was set to expire in November 2019, so whoever is selected will only hold the seat for one year and then have to decide if he or she wants to formally run for the seat in 2019.

Cohen said there are plenty of good candidates out there and wanted to see the BOE spread news about the vacancy before the 60-day clock starts ticking.

“I think it would be good to do expeditiously, because those interested might want to attend BOE meetings and discuss the possibilities of what it entails with other board members and reach out before making the decision to formally throw their hat in the ring,” she said.

Those interested can contact Guilford Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman, who will pass applications along to the full board.